Hope Hagen
Out With the Old, In With the New
Lights, curtain, action! The dancers are ready and the stage is set. Tonight is
opening night of Butler Ballet’s production of The Sleeping Beauty, but there are still
some final touches to be added. Butler Ballet, like most companies, reuses its
costumes from year to year, replacing them when they are too old and worn out to
wear. This year, approximately 80 costumes have been replaced out of the 125 in
the show. Replacing such a high proportion of the costumes for a show has never
been done before and has presented many challenges for the costume shop.
Before Kathleen Egan, the costumer for Butler Ballet, was hired the position
was only part-time. Due to the time constraint of the position, and the time it takes
to prepare a show, very few costumes could be made to replace old ones. Her
predecessor mainly worked on alterations to make the old costumes fit new
dancers. Since then, Egan has transformed the costume shop into one of the busiest
rooms in Lilly Hall, the building where Butler Ballet resides.
The Sleeping Beauty has been incredibly stressful on Egan. However, in
regards to remaking over half the costumes, she says, “I couldn’t stand putting those
old ghastly costumes on stage again.” The Sleeping Beauty was the first spring show
she costumed for Butler Ballet when she was hired in 2010. Not only were many of
the costumes so old they were falling apart, many of them were designed for the
wrong era. The untrained eye would be unlikely to notice, but Egan takes too much
pride in her work to present an inadequate costume on stage to save time and
energy. After the nightmare that was Sleeping Beauty of 2011, she set out to make
Sleeping Beauty of 2015 a more pleasant experience by re-costuming most of the
show.
Even with all the new costumes she has made, there are still a few racks full
of dated costumes lurking in the dressing rooms. Her least favorites, the dryad
costumes, are over 30 years old and at the end of their useful life. She says, “I’d love
to just burn them.” As unflattering as the bodices are, it is the long tutus attached to
them that are truly horrifying. Made with craft netting, instead of the special tutu
netting that gives a skirt life and volume, the years have taken their toll on these
poor skirts; they hang lifeless around the dancers’ legs. Egan spent many hours
trying to “save the dryads.” She added embellishments and did as much repair work
as possible to the skirts. “They have been a huge time sucker and at this point,” she
says, “it would have taken almost the same amount of time to replace them all.”
Luckily, Egan has had some help with all of this. Her friend, tutu specialist
Kathy Wenzel, came back to contribute her expertise to the 17 classical tutus in the
show. A new addition to the team is Sabena Brown-Selnow. Egan and Brown-Selnow
met at tutu camp (an intensive course on “how to tutu” held in Nevada) over the
summer. Brown-Selnow traveled from Chicago to help costume the show. In
addition to Wenzel and Brown-Selnow, Butler dancers often volunteer their limited
spare time to assist with costumes.
With hours to go, the team is still hard at work to put the finishing touches on
the show before tonight’s premier. After the hectic past two months, Egan says she
will be glad to put The Sleeping Beauty to rest. The Sleeping Beauty will be showing
April 17 and 18 at 8 p.m., and April 19 at 2 p.m.